Voice quality on wireless communication systems is an issue for both service users and wireless service providers. While voice quality is a known variable for the caller and callee (i.e., the recipient of the call), the issue of monitoring voice quality in real time is more complicated for service providers. There remains a need for faster and more efficient ways of monitoring voice quality over wireless networks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,953, issued to Maurer et al., describes a system for evaluating the quality of a transmission channel utilizing voice recognition technology that provides an accurate practical tool that measures voice quality in real-time and records audio for later examination. The system measures both the uplink audio (mobile to landline) and downlink audio (landline to mobile). Each of the voice quality scores is tagged with a time/date stamp. The Maurer et al. system uses a resolution of 1 millisecond. This can be used to correlate with data from a global positioning system (GPS) to plot the voice quality scores on a map, thus allowing an engineer to see where the voice quality degrades, to plot coverage maps, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,169,896, issued to Sant et al., describes a system for directly comparing on a service quality basis a plurality of wireless network services that includes a vehicle containing a plurality of phones for different wireless networks and a fixed location for receiving calls from or transmitting calls to the vehicle. A call is initiated at the vehicle or fixed location, and a series of pre-selected messages are alternately transmitted between the vehicle and the fixed end through each of the networks with each message being quality graded with voice recognition software or data comparison techniques so that quality grades for each network are provided which can be combined and compared in various ways. The vehicle also includes a global positioning satellite system so that the vehicle location and speed can be tagged to each transmitted message to compare the relative quality of the networks within specific portions of the geographical area covered by the vehicle.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020131604, published to Amine, describes a system for measuring, analyzing, and improving voice quality, reliability, and interoperability of packet-based voice communication systems. The system measures quality of speech, analyzes DTMF and other telephony signaling, or captures line events at a remote location and communicating that information over computer networks. The system can include two or more testers, positioned at different geographic locations, for the purpose of monitoring the quality of speech and other communication parameters on voice-based computer networks. The invention relates to a system and method for generating one or more calls over different networks and deriving relative performance data from these calls. The user can compare the quality of service (speech quality, distortion, delays, jitter, echo, glitches, noise, etc.) between these networks under test. Each network may be a VON, a PSTN, or a hybrid VON-PSTN.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 20030134631, issued to Snyder et al., describes a system with one or more communication devices within a communication network that are provided with a dynamically and remotely configurable probe element, implemented at least partially in software and controllable by the network operator via one or more communication links, capable of monitoring, measuring and capturing user interaction data flowing from voice and/or data transactions occurring in the network. User interaction data reflects a user's experience on the network and thus provides valuable raw data usable by the network operator for improving network quality from the user's perspective, especially when received from a statistically significant number of network user devices. Collected user interaction data can include network engineering metric data and/or user profile data.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,428, issued Dec. 11, 2001 to Lewis et al., describes a voice quality performance evaluator. The '428 evaluator includes an interface, memory, processing circuitry and may include a network interface. The interface is adapted to couple to a voice transmission path under test. The memory couples to the interface and is adapted to store an original voice sample and a modified voice sample. The processing circuitry couples to the interface and to the memory, retrieves the original voice sample from the memory and transmits the original voice sample to the voice transmission path under test via the interface. The processing circuitry also receives the modified voice sample via the interface from the voice transmission path under test. The processing circuitry compares the original voice sample to the modified voice sample in the frequency domain to evaluate the performance of the voice transmission path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,320, issued Nov. 16, 1999 to Bobick et al., describes a voice quality testing apparatus and method. The '320 system, if implemented, includes a receiving and transmitting apparatus at both ends of the system. To evaluate voice quality, one apparatus transmits a TDM base band voice test signal to a receiving apparatus. The configuration of the transmitted TDM base band voice test signal permits the receiving end to synchronize a test sentence, contained within the TDM test signal, with a corresponding reference sentence stored at the receiving apparatus. After synchronization, the receiving apparatus uses a model of human hearing to objectively compare the two sentences, and based on the result, outputs an AQS ranking. In addition to voice quality, the apparatus measures SINAD, noise, distortion, and signal level of transmitted test tones and maintains a log of call progress statistics.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20030069011, published Apr. 10, 2003 to Bonnifait et al., describes a voice quality of telephone calls in which a first connection is established between a computerized apparatus and a person acting as a first experimenter, and a second connection is established between the platform and a second experimenter. The first and second connections are interconnected by the computerized apparatus to establish a call between the two experimenters and enable them to converse, the apparatus being cut into the call in order to acquire data about the call. The experimenters' opinions are solicited concerning their perceptions of the quality level they observe during their conversation. The apparatus evaluates consistency of the data collected with the nominal experimental conditions and the nominal quality level associated with the current test. Then, a determination is made on how the current test should be carried out as a function of a test plan and the result of the evaluation. The test plan is set up by specifying nominal conditions for the experiment and nominal quality levels for carrying out the tests, and in collecting data during the tests.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 20050015253, published Jan. 20, 2005 to Rambo et al., describes methods and systems of analyzing, assessing, and reporting voice quality scores. In one embodiment, voice quality scores are generated by querying one or more computing devices responsible for processing a reference speech sample input into a voice communication system.